_Written in the Condemned Cells, Newgate, by Captain Lee, the night
previous to his execution, being convicted of forging a bill of exchange
for 15l. on the Ordnance Office._

_Newgate, March_ 3, 1784.

My Dear Sir,--Before this reaches you, the head that dictates and the
hand that traces these lines shall be no more. Earthly cares shall all
be swallowed up, and the death of an unthinking man shall have atoned
for the trespass he has committed against the laws of his country. But
ere the curtain be for ever dropped, or remembrance leave this tortured
breast, let me take this last and solemn leave of one with whom I have
passed so many social and instructive hours, whose conversation I fondly
cultivated, and whose friendship for me I hope will remain, even after
the clay-cold hand of death has closed my eyes in everlasting darkness.

I cannot think you will view this letter with stoic coolness, or with
listless indifference. Absorbed as the generality of men are in the
pursuits of pleasure or the avocations of business, there are times when
the mind looks inward upon itself, when a review of past follies induces
us to future amendment, and when a consciousness of having acted wrong
leads us to resolutions of doing right. In one of those fortunate
moments may you receive these last admonitions! Shun but the rock on
which I have struck, and you will be sure to avoid the shipwreck I have
suffered. Initiated in the army at an early period of life, I soon
anticipated not only the follies, but even the vices of my companions.
Before, however, I could share with undisturbed repose in the wickedness
of others, it was necessary to remove from myself what the infidel terms
the prejudices of a Christian education. In this I unfortunately
succeeded; and conceiving from my tenderest years a taste for reading,